This invention pertains to collection of residential refuse containers by use of a front loading commodity collection truck with a top load opening.
Front loading refuse collection trucks are provided with front forks which are designed to reach into horizontally oriented sleeves on the sides of a front loadable commercial refuse container such that the container can be elevated and tipped by the lift arms of the truck to invert the refuse container over the top opening of the collection body carried on the truck. Those frontloading refuse collection trucks are capable of emptying only one kind of refuse container, namely a commercial front load container with horizontal sleeves mounted to the opposing side walls of the container.
Additional equipment to make a front loading commodity collection truck more versatile has been developed, such equipment including an intermediate container, frequently termed a “carry-can”, which is carried on the front forks of the truck. The intermediate container is either filled manually by workers lifting residential refuse containers to tip them over the intermediate container, or the intermediate container may be filled by loading apparatus mounted on the intermediate container which can extend from the intermediate container and grasp an upright residential refuse container and upend it over the intermediate container so that the contents of the refuse container fall into the intermediate container. Existing loading apparatus of this kind requires the arm assembly to be mounted to the intermediate container and attached to the front forks as a unit.